How utterly ridiculous! If children cannot remember a few passwords to log into an iPad how on earth is a school to hope children will retain lesson content?

What is more worrying is that teachers also "dedicate a lot of time to logging
in". Apparently with this new facial recognition programme it is a “walk through one door and you’re into everything,”...erm, isn't that what an iPad password does anyway?

The whole sales pitch on this was completely flawed - in fact it was a load of rubbish and parents were not falling for it. A solution to a problem that simply did not exist and parents rightly saw through this.

It's strange isn't it? Outside school children are quite capable of remembering passwords for computers, tablets and mobile phones. As a parent I can absolutely say that I have never heard another parent moan about their child's inability to remember a password or had any conversation with another parent about their child's passwords being stolen or compromised. So it's very odd that when a child enters school this sudden amnesia becomes a problem that potentially costs the tax payer $189,000. I would say that is unbelievable.

If maybe, possibly, this peculiar amnesia is true, then surely $189,000 could be better spent to fund research into this strange phenomenon of kids forgetting passwords... I don't think we'll see that happen because this sudden loss of memory in our children does not exist - and we parents know it.

A petition was set up by a parent that gained over 360 signatures and was successful in swaying opinion that biometric facial recognition is a completely unnecessary and inappropriate technology to use with children.

"At a time when biometric technology is increasingly finding applications in schools – from deployments as innocuous as cafeteria lunch administration to more serious security systems
– the EUSD fiasco signals how precarious this area can be, given the
privacy and security concerns that often seem to come up with public
biometric deployments, and parents’ particularly strong interest in
protecting their kids."

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Facial recognition is a biometric technology not much used
in education.If it is to be used it has been
mooted that it will track children’s facial expressions to gauge response to
lessons or on screen learning but it is now starting to creep into identifying
and verification of students.

In the UK, facial recognition systems are not used in
schools with the exception of one small instance of facial
recognition being used in education in 2010 at the City of Ely Community
College for registration purposes.The
college no longer uses the facial recognition system as it wasn’t suitable for
the purpose intended; the scheme ran for around an academic year before being
scrapped.

U-T San Diego file photo

Now the technology has matured over the past 5 years, facial
recognition is coming back into education.Encinitas Union School District, in California, students will log
in to their iPads via facial recognition technology for a first-of-its-kind
pilot project.This involves the iPad
scanning the child’s face every 60 seconds claiming to help kids log on to
technology and for them not to forget their passwords.If a child cannot be taught to remember their
password then what hope is there for the schools to actually educate them!This is not about remembering passwords or
saving time logging on.This is about
constantly verifying the student so that the data controllers running the
educational software can accurately gather data on that individual. So here
facial recognition is being used to identify and continuously verify.Not without controversy though, parents are
not happy with this constant biometric facial scanning for a number of reasons,
invasion of privacy of minors and a that it a waste of money, with a
petition set up against the facial recognition technology being used in
this schools district.

“Encinitas Union launched its iPad
program in 2012, equipping each third-through sixth-grade student with a device
to use for school work and lessons. Since then, the district has put iPads into
the hands of all of its 5,400 students, at a cost of $2.7 million.
“It’s creepy to take a photograph of a kid every 60 seconds,” said Gil Saidy,
who has a third grade son at Flora Vista Elementary School. “I don’t trust
them. I don’t want these roving cameras in my house.”

“It’s a momma-bear’s
instinct to protect their child. I just don’t know who has access to the face
scans,” said another parent, Darcy Brandon. “Where is the data being stored?”

The pilot program
would start with 100 students and, if successful, the technology could
ultimately be added to all district iPads. Parents must opt-in to have their
child use biometrics.”

At the very least it is an opt-in scheme so hopefully most
parents will have the common sense to say ‘no’ to this unnecessary use of
facial recognition, desensitising our kids to constant monitoring.

Unlike fingerprint or palm scanning biometrics used in
schools, facial recognition is a non-participatory biometric with the ubiquitous
scanning happening without conscious involvement. What else is the facial
scanning revealing?

Educational companies are lining
up with emotional face biometrics coming into education gauging how a student
is feeling, where their eyes are looking, how they are reacting.An article from September
2013 reports that SensorStar Labs have a product that records “When the student is looking up at the
teacher, the teacher score goes up. If she looks down at the computer, the
computer score goes up. So we’re tracking facial expressions. If she makes a
smile, it might be indicative that is enthusiastic about the topic.”

Facial recognition has also been introduced at St Mary's High School, St Louis, for 'safety' reasons only allowing in to school registered members on the database. This is thought to be the first instance of facial recognition being used in this way in the States. There is also a 'watch list' of peoples faces not allowed in the schoolthat alerts law enforcement if those persons of interest try to enter.Presumably opting out of this facial recognition system is not an option for pupils as it would deny them entry to education.

Facial recognition seems to be emerging as the new educational biometric. Not for the student convenience or safety, more about verification of data capture... who is where, doing what and when.

Children are the most data mined section of our society. Biometric facial verification more accurately authenticates the data grab and profiling of our kids.

Monday, February 09, 2015

Fingerprinting children in school, especially primary school children, is a contentious issue - with parents and children having the right in the UK not to participate. Schools must seek written consent to take and process a child's biometric data.

Not so in Australia it seems.

In this article it reported that East Para Primary School has told parents they have "no choice" in the matter for a school registration system that will eventually be introduced for parents too if they want to enter the school. The school's current newsletter states the same blerb parents have had here in the UK reassuring that no image of the fingerprint will be stored, it cannot be reconstructed and the biometric data will not be given to government or agencies... but put plainly it is a biometric mark/measure of your child's body, in this case a fingerprint, that has to stay secure, safe and never be compromised.

Giving up ones biometric may not be considered a proportionate use of personal data. Parents should be able to decide what level of privacy they want for themselves and their children in this respect.

School mother Sandra Tomasin said she was disgusted by the move and immediately rang the school to ask that her Year 1 son be exempt from the program.

“They have told me that I have no choice,’’ Ms Tomasin said.

“It is an invasion of privacy. I don’t want to let it happen but I want to keep him at the school.’’

Ms Tomasin said regardless of whether or not finger prints were stored by the system, primary school children having to scan their fingers when they came and went to school was outrageous.

Sandra Tomasin is rightly outraged and should have a right for her child to attend school and NOT having to give up their biometric data.

In the UK schools fell short of giving this ultimatum as it was thought to breach Human Rights legislation by denying a service to a child because they chose not to give up their biometric data, any ultimatum of this sort was also on shaking grounds with Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (right to privacy) "Every child has the right to privacy. The law should protect the child’s private, family and home life." - which does apply to Australia.

The below statement was made by Privacy International in 2002 about library systems that used children's fingerprint biometrics in the UK to log books in and out. It is still applicable now.

Vital questions for schools

Quotations:

"People have to be stark, raving mad to use conventional biometrics to improve the efficiancy of a children's lunch line"From Kim Cameron's weblog, the Architect of Identity and Access in the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft.

"If a child has never touched a fingerprint scanner, there is zero probability of being incorrectly investigated for a crime. Once a child has touched a scanner they will be at the mercy of the matching algorithm for the rest of their lives."Brian Drury, IT security consultant.

One head teacher's reason to install a biometric system in his school :"... the system was preparing pupils for a world in which terrorism was rife, and their privacy would be further invaded"From the York Press January 2007.

"Biometric solutions will increasingly allow us to move towards a cashless society and this project is one of the first real examples in the UK of an innovative and truly practical biometric solution in operation"Mike Nelson, General Manager of Fujitsu - supplier of the 'vein scanning' technology in a Scottish primary school.

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UPDATE July 2015: This Petition against facial recognition in San Diago schools was was successful!

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Interview

Pippa talks about biometrics ad RFID in education - May 2015

Interview

Interview with Pippa King in the second hour to look at the Britain’s new national facial recognition roll-out - Feb 2015

Biometrics and RFID

Interview with Pippa King by Patrick Henningsen on 21st Century Wire - March 2014

Interview

Interview with Pippa King by Tony Gosling from BCFM - August 2013

Interview

Katherine Albrecht show - July 2013. Katherine and Pippa King discuss the victories in removing or preventing biometric and other tracking systems from being used on our children.

Biometrics Institute

The Biometrics Institute offer advice regarding the use of biometric technology in schools. Check their Membership List to see if the company handling your child's biometric data is upholding good practice industry standards. ''The mission of the Biometrics Institute is to promote the responsible use of biometrics as an independent and impartial international forum for biometric users and other interested parties.'

Article - Biometrics and RFID Tracking in UK Education

Documenting the rise of biometric and RFID technology used in education - August 2013

Book - Surveillance Schools

With the growth of surveillance technologies globally, Dr Emmeline Taylor focuses on the phenomenon of the Surveillance School and explores the impact that continual monitoring is having upon school children, education and society.